Daily Meditations
Read today's Just for Today or A Spiritual Principle A Day readings.
Just for Today
December 18, 2025 |
The message of our meetings |
| Page 368 |
| "The fact that we, each and every group, focus on carrying the message provides consistency; addicts can count on us." |
| Basic Text, p. 68 |
| Tales of our antics in active addiction may be funny. Stories of our old bizarre reactions to life when using may be interesting. But they tend to carry the mess more than the message. Philosophical arguments on the nature of God are fascinating. Discussions of current controversies have their place--however, it's not at an NA meeting. Those times when we grow disgusted with meetings and find ourselves complaining that "they don't know how to share" or "it was another whining session" are probably indications that we need to take a good, hard look at how we share. What we share about how we got into recovery and how we stayed here through practicing the Twelve Steps is the real message of recovery. That's what we are all looking for when we go to a meeting. Our primary purpose is to carry the message to the still-suffering addict, and what we share at meetings can either contribute significantly to this effort or detract greatly. The choice, and the responsibility, is ours. |
| Just for Today: I will share my recovery at an NA meeting. |
A Spiritual Principle a Day
December 18, 2025 |
The Courage to Hope |
| Page 364 |
| "When we can separate hope from wishing or expectation, it stops feeling like such a setup." |
| Living Clean, Chapter 7, "Living Our Principles" |
| In the final weekend of the football season, it's common to hear fans utter a familiar refrain: "It's the hope that kills you." Maybe it's smart to restrain our optimism if winning the championship has been elusive year after year. Football fans know that a bad decision, a lousy play, or rotten luck will crush hopes. In life, as in football, it might seem that we dare to dream at our peril. Few of us get through life without enduring a heartbreak or two. There may be times when we swear off hope, effectively putting the kibosh on our aspirations. But that's no way to live. A broken heart has loved, after all. Yes, hope can lead to disappointment, but it can also usher us to new heights. "Hope is what gets me going in the right direction. It gives me a sense that I can do something to realize my dreams," one member wrote. "Hope motivates me to persevere, to put in the effort. Hoping but not doing the work? That's just making a wish." Of course, we can move in the right direction and still get caught offside. Our projections about what it takes to achieve a dream aren't always accurate. Sometimes we get what we'd worked and prayed for only to discover that we were left wanting. Recovery can help us through all of that. We learn to survive our expectations and the emotions attached to them, not do without them. We allow ourselves to feel hope and also to tolerate disappointment or redirection. Hope is daring to dream, doing the footwork, and landing on our feet. No matter how it pans out, we are stronger, more resilient, even more hopeful for having taken those risks. |
| ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— |
| Recovery gives me the courage to hope. I can take action and exert influence on the world around me. If things don't work out as I'd hoped--and if my team loses again--I will cope. |